Black Notebook
The Black Notebook is a notebook that Elise Fibel and Ares share, where they each keep information on multiple things (people, events, etc.). Fairy Tail Formed by Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Precht Gaebolg (who would later become known as Hades) and Warrod Sequen, Fairy Tail is the most famous wizards' guild in the Kingdom of Fiore, most widely known for producing some of the most powerful wizards in the history of magic—so powerful, in fact, they cause unintended destruction no matter what they do. Founded over one hundred years ago by Mavis Vermillion, the guild was named in honor of the age old question, "Do fairies have tails? Do they even exist?", which represents an mystery, and thus an eternal adventure. * All There in the Manual: Most information on the characters' personalities and interests—particularly the minor members—are detailed in profiles on certain chapter covers, some of which makes its way into the anime. * Badass Crew: Fairy Tail easily outnumbers the other guilds in terms of badass members by a dozenfold. They're also a colorful, tightly knit bunch of goofballs who consider each other closer than any family. * Beware the Silly Ones: They baffle all ordinary folks (and sometimes each other) with their eccentricities, but they all have one thing in common: mess with their guild, and they will end you. * Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Don't let their assortment of personality quirks fool you; a good number of their deadliest opponents have acknowledged them as cunning warriors. It's quite telling that their founder was a genius military strategist with the appearance and behavior of a 13-year-old girl. * Dark Secret: Lumen Histoire, the guild's biggest secret sealed away deep beneath the guildhall, is so low-profile that only the guild's masters are permitted awareness of its existence. Wide knowledge of it is said to potentially upend the laws of magic as the world knows it, and word of it leaking out is enough for a neighboring continent to launch a full-scale invasion in order to claim it. It is a wellspring of perpetual magic power known as Fairy Heart, akin to a stream of Etherion that can never be stopped once it is unleashed. At the core of this power is the body of Mavis Vermillion herself, held in stasis within a lacrima crystal in a state between life and death that was brought about when she was afflicted and "killed" by the Curse of Ankhselam, the same life-stealing curse that Zeref suffers from. * Destructive Savior: They're notorious in Fiore for causing more collateral damage than any of the monsters or villains they face. As such, they're not particularly well liked by the Magic Council, and the reward money they receive is usually reduced to pay for repairs. * Determinator: No matter what, they never give up, and if they can help it, they never let themselves lose to the same opponent twice Strongest Team The Main Characters in the series, considered to be the strongest team in the entire Fairy Tail guild. This team initially consists solely of Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, and Happy at the suggestion of the Celestial Spirit Plue, with Aries, Elise Fibel, Virion, Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet joining the team shortly after tagging along with them a number of times. Wendy Marvell and Carla also become unofficial additions to the team later on. In General * Almighty Janitor: In a sense, despite Mirajane coining the term calling them the "Strongest Team," they are not literally comprised of the individual strongest members of Fairy Tail. * Badass Crew: They're recognized up as Fairy Tail's strongest team. * Childhood Friends: Natsu, Gray, Aries, Elise and Erza. Lucy questions the nature of their friendship when Erza asks Natsu, Aries, Elise and Gray if they want to take a bath together like when they were kids. * Combination Attack: Despite not actually fighting a single enemy together very often, during their battle with Hades, they displayed this in the form of launching Natsu at the enemy at high speeds. Twice. * Dark and Troubled Past: All of their backstories are quite tragic and sad. To elaborate: ** Natsu died along with his mother and father several hundred years ago by a dragon attack before his older brother Zeref sacrificed just about everything to bring him back as a demon. Then, he was left by Igneel and the person he made a Childhood Marriage Promise dies (not really). ** Gray lost his birth parents at Deliora's hands and then lost his new Parental Substitute because of his actions, as well as causing his technical brother to hate him. ** Aries never really had any parents to begin with, and she lost her technical sister (who she later found out wasn't really dead) and her Parental Substitute (possibly real parent) due to Gray's actions, but she still doesn't blame him. She has also never met her father or knows if she even has one. ** Erza was abandoned by her own mother after she attempted and failed, in the midst of her Face–Heel Turn, to steal her body for herself, and that was after spending 400 years in her womb being protected by her and nearly being killed by her father. She was later enslaved by Zeref cultists, until she led a revolt that cost her not only an eye, but her friends' loyalty. Also, she lost her grandmother figure in a carriage accident. She only had Elise after all of that. ** Elise, much like Erza, was abandoned by her mother out of guilt for her actions and life since her mother was never human to begin with. She was later enslaved by Zeref cultists, until she led a revolt that cost her not only an eye, but her friends' loyalty. Also, she lost her grandmother figure in a carriage accident. She only had Erza after all of the trauma. ** Lucy's mother committed a Heroic Sacrifice when she was young, and her father spent his time maintaining his business with his company. Eventually, Lucy is forced to leave her family life behind and join Fairy Tail. ** Virion never had a good relationship with his parents, particularly his father. He was eventually adopted by a dragon, who left him when he was only about 5 years old. Unlike Natsu, he actually remembers his parents but refuses to know anymore since he believes that his father corrupted the beautiful and gentle soul of his mother. ** Wendy, like Natsu and Virion, was left by her dragon when she was only about 5 years old and then left to wander the world with Mystogan until he left her. * Destructive Saviors: Most of their missions' pay goes to the repairs of the place that they destroyed, much to Lucy's ire. * Determinator: No matter what, they never give up, and if they can help it, they never let themselves lose to the same opponent twice. Natsu Dragneel Natsu is a famous Fairy Tail wizard known as "Salamander". He is generally regarded as the guild's problem child who breaks more property than the master can handle, but no one is more loyal to his friends than he is. He was raised from a young age by the dragon Igneel, who mysteriously disappeared seven years ago on July 7, X777. Ever since then, Natsu has been on a personal journey to find the dragon and learn what happened. * Adaptation Dye-Job: His hair is reddish in the manga, but more pink in the anime * Adult Fear: When Happy is captured by Minerva, who threatens to kill him if Natsu doesn't obey her demands, he does so without any second thoughts. * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: As part of his ongoing Ship Tease with Lucy, he's prone to doing this as his way of giving her comfort. * Almighty Janitor: He's almost always the one to beat the arc's Arc Villain, and even though Erza outranks him, she's admitted a few times that he's at least her equal, if not stronger. Justified in that S-Class requires more than just fighting ability; Natsu is very impulsive and frequently gets in over his head. He is given the chance to escape this during the S-Class promotion exam, though that chance is ruined after the exam is interrupted and ultimately canceled thanks to Grimoire Heart. * Amnesiac Hero: He can't remember much of his life before being trained by Igneel. This is because he was killed by a dragon and resurrected as a demon by Zeref, who turns out to be his brother. Getting sent through Eclipse to the present era also created several gaps in his memory. * Anti-Magic: Natsu can incinerate magic when he reaches a sufficient point of power. Even when Zeref obtains Fairy Heart, which grants him infinite magic power, Natsu manages to beat him simply by burning his magic away until he can land a crippling blow. * Attack! Attack! Attack!: He will always move to beat up an enemy without considering whether or not that enemy is out of his league. Gildarts eventually calls him out on this during the Sirius Island arc, after which he has an easier time noticing when he can't win a fight. * Badass in Distress: During the Edolas arc, Natsu and Wendy are captured by the king of Edolas and drained of their magic; also having been unable to use their powers in Edolas, they have to be rescued by Lucy, Erza, Aries, Elise, Virion and Gray. * Balloon Belly: Mostly due to his voracious appetite. He tends to swell up when inhaling fire. * Battle Aura: When Natsu's emotions are at their peak in the midst of battle, his enemy can see the image of Igneel overlapping him. More normally, his flames can give him the appearance of this as well. * The Battle Didn't Count: Said towards Laxus as he had to use outside help (Gajeel) to beat him. Laxus, by this point having mellowed out, agrees. * The Berserker: Natsu lives and breathes this trope. He's an incredibly reckless fighter, throwing himself into battles and destroying everything in his path. Also tends to be exploited; as Makarov puts it, Natsu's primary driving force is his righteous fury, so if making him mad is a good way to have the bad guys be wrecked. * Beware the Silly Ones: He's an affable and goofy guy when you get to know him. Heaven forbid anyone gets on his bad side. Elise Fibel A mysterious, quiet, no-nonsense young woman who doesn't easily open up to others and is fond of reading, Elise is one of Fairy Tail's most powerful female wizard, renowned throughout the kingdom as "Princess". Using her magic, The Ruler, she is able to "requip"—instantaneously exchange and equip—hundreds of different weapons and dresses, the latter of which are extremely durable. She's also the daughter of Ermiana El Kel Alzano. * Anti-Hero: Elise is aloof, antisocial, and can be callous about the feelings of those around her; all the same, she clearly cares deeply about helping people and protecting those she loves. She has severe self-doubt over her tendency to abandon people and her fear of getting emotionally close to anyone. * Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-inverted with her and Virion. She is a moody, melancholy loner with a very Dark and Troubled Past. In an attempt to overcome her self-perceived cowardice, she tries to deal with problems herself (and hurts herself in the process) or avoids them altogether, and later insists that it's best if nobody were attached to her. Whenever Virion sees Elise in distress, he often tries to cheer her up or offer her comfort and companionship, usually to be ignored or coldly dismissed. He refuses to give up on being her companion and being there for her during her darkest moment, despite the fact that all he usually accomplishes is pissing her off even further. Elise questions whether Virion understands what she's been through, and feels like she must keep everybody at a distance so that they don't have to suffer alongside her. Meanwhile, Virion tries to convince Elise to let go of her past and forgive herself for her mistakes. * Cowardly Lion: She believes that her biggest flaw is that she runs away from her problems. She is convinced her entire make-up is designed around this flaw because her strange power leaves clones behind whenever she dodges or flees, which take the hits that are meant for her. * Deadpan Snarker: Has a tendency to calmly and bluntly put down others. * Fatal Flaw: The majority of Elise's problems stem from a deep self-loathing. She generally focuses on what she thinks are her own failings, such as perceived cowardice and guilt over things she has no control of, which often drives her to run away from others when they try to help her. Elise admits to her father that she doesn't understand how anyone could care about her or forgive her for what she's said and done, and tells Virion that she wants to do things on her own because that way she's the only one who has to suffer the consequences. * Lady of War: She relies more on acrobatics, speed and stealth than brute strength or large weapons when she fights. Normally very composed, she becomes deadly and focused when emotionally-charged in battle. * Leave Me Alone!: This is her mindset in a nutshell. * Secretly Wealthy: When Elise shows Virion where her family home is, Virion is shocked to see it's the largest residential building in the area. It's a huge, sprawling mansion with steps leading up to a giant front door with an enormous, intimidating knocker. There are multiple, good-sized rooms inside and Elise's family mansion uses rich, warming wood effects. * Ship Tease: Virion is introduced winking flirtatiously at her, and he's frequently shown trying to charm her in his own dorky way. She fluctuates between being flattered and annoyed at his advances (he was her most frequent target of a Death Glare) at first, but she's warmed up to him, culminating in her dancing with him and blushing at his flirting. * Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In contrast with Aries' mentality, she has a very different view of the world. ** Elise: Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale. Aries (Ares) "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books — someone who fought for what was right and who protected people who couldn't protect themselves." * Adorkable: Her outbursts of energy, enthusiasm, and the way she interacts with people are adorable. * Ambiguous Innocence: Aries seems cheery and innocent in personality, but her moments of extreme violence make one wonder... * Break the Cutie: Both of her parents are now dead (as far was we know) and she watched her mother figure die. She's holding up quite well considering the events that happened, but she's definitely not the same anymore. * Casting a Shadow: Her Root of Calamity power allows her to execute darkness based magic. * Cursed with Awesome: The Root of Calamity power she possesses. Sure it gives her a lot of power, but her technical sister resented her for it. * Death Glare: Actually really scary. Everyone has learned not to make her mad. However, Natsu learns it the hard way. * Everyone Has Standards: For obvious reasons, she is the only one in the guild who doesn't seem to mind Gray's stripping habit. However, during the second Time Skip when the two lived together, Aries had grown tired of having to constantly pick up Gray's clothes whenever he stripped during training. * Flower Motifs: Is heavily associated with roses. Her strange power leaves rose petals when she uses her superspeed. * The Force Is Strong with This One: When Merudy threatens Gray in the Sirius Island arc, Aries begins to easily overwhelm her with powerful attacks and shows such strength that Erza—officially recognized as the strongest woman of Fairy Tail—reevaluated her initial combat abilities from when she had defeated her. Even Merudy, who had ranked her third among the most important members of Fairy Tail to kill, realizes that the more Aries lets herself go completely to her emotions, the more her magic power increases. * Heroic Sacrifice: She pulls one off for Cana when they are forced to battle each other in the Fantasia arc by attacking the Thunder Palace lacrima above them and electrocuting herself to prove that she really loves everyone in Fairy Tail, not that Cana needed convincing. It doesn't kill Aries, though. * Heroic Suicide: She commits suicide when she and Gray are trapped and forced to fight due to Spriggan 12 Invel's magic, both in order to prevent herself from killing him and sparing him the agony of killing her. When she realizes Gray did the same thing, she uses the last of her life to perform a blood transfusion magic to save him. Despite her apparent demise, she pulls through with Wendy and Carla's help. * In Harm's Way: Aries is a very good fighter and wants to become a Mage so that she can help protect people who cannot protect themselves. She chose Mage over the police force because she thinks being a Mage is a much cooler job option, and she figures that if she's going to spend her life helping people, she may as well make a career out of it. She enjoys combat and feels more comfortable on the battlefield than on a dance floor. * Large Ham: She's enthusiastic, energetic and gets easily carried away. * Leeroy Jenkins: Aries has a tendency to act without prior thought, which has put her in mortal danger at least twice so far. * Let's Get Dangerous!: Whenever Gray's life is in danger, Aries will almost certainly and instantly get her head out of the clouds in her rage and protect him, resulting in her opponent being curb stomped without prejudice. * Literal-Minded: In addition to the more specific trait of Sarcasm Blindness, Aries frequently struggles to grasp idioms and other figures of speech, leading to exchanges along the lines of the following: ** Gray: If you want to grow up, you're going to have to meet new people and learn to work together. ** Aries: I don't need other people to help me grow up, I drink milk! * Motor Mouth: Whenever Aries gets nervous or excited, she begins speaking at a much faster pace. * Mood-Swinger: She can snap from calm or cheerful to a towering temper or a malevolent vindictiveness and back again with speed. * Naïve Everygirl: Aries fits this trope to a T at first (being idealistic, Sarcasm-Blind and Literal-Minded), though with Character Development and some suffering she's started to grow out of this. * Not Good with People: By her own admission, she prefers to let her fighting speak for her. Gray does try her best to help Aries grow out of it by forcing her to make friends. * The Paragon: Aries has an instinctive ability to inspire others through her idealistic, optimistic outlook and refusal to give in depression, pain or grief even when things become difficult. Erza considers her to be the embodiment of purity. Makorov tells Lucy that he thinks she has an unquantifiable power to inspire others, even in the darkest times, that he finds quite remarkable. He and Gray are the only ones who suspect it's placing a terrible burden upon her. * Plucky Girl: Aries has an enduring optimism that she can make the world a better place for everyone. She was raised on children stories about great heroes protecting and inspiring people and is determined to become a Mage to help people survive the world of monsters in which they live. When Elise tries to tell her she's fantasizing like a child and the real world isn't so kind, Aries simply tells her that the reason people like them exist is to make the real world a nicer place. * Poor Communication Kills: Subverted, and later discussed. * Power Echoes: Her Root of Calamity power gives her a bone-chilling echo to her voice while it's active. It doesn't help that she tends to combines this with blood-curdling screaming. * The Power of Love: Erza notes in the Sirius Island arc that Aries achieves her full power while motivated by intense feelings of love for Gray. * Sarcasm-Blind: She has issues detecting sarcasm. * Short tempered: Her anger has two versions; when her hair is cut during battle, her resulting anger leads her to attack with straight, blunt force. However, her other side of anger is often caused by traumatizing experiences, such as Gray's "Death", where her eyes turned a dull purple and a shadow was cast on her face. She didn't speak, but mumbled the word "annihilate", which caused a huge explosion to form, likely caused from her Root of Calamity. * Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: ** She responds to Elise's cynical rebuttal against her idealistic views of being a Mage by agreeing with her statement that the world is corrupted, but adding that Mages exist to make it better. * Sweet Tooth: Aries has five spoons of sugar in her coffee and has a strong taste for cookies. * Tomboy: Aries tries to act all ladylike, but she's not very good at it. She's kind, but also temperamental. * Unstoppable Rage: Her fury, typically unleashed by the any sort of threats made towards Fairy Tail, particularly Gray, easily allows her to overcome any obstacle she'd normally be unable to overcome. * Wide-Eyed Idealist: She has deep faith that their world can be improved, and was inspired to become a Mage by fairytales Ur read to her as a child. ** Elise: response to hearing the above Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairytale. ** Aries: smiles Well, that's why we're here. To make it better. * Will They or Won't They?: By the time of the Alvarez Empire arc, Aries' feelings for Gray finally start to get reciprocated, even though they were before, when Gray and Aries were children, to the point where Gray promises to give her a straight answer. The finale all but says outright that Gray is at least willing to be intimate with her, blushing and vaguely saying that Aries' body "belongs to him". * Yandere: She's a rather toned-down example. She's never willing to hurt Lucy or anyone else who shows affection for Gray. Threaten or harm Gray, on the other hand, and she will make every effort to reduce you to a crawling and bleeding being S-Class Wizards Zuri He hates constraints and loves his freedom, so he does her best to avoid worries and problems, and indulges in lazing about. However, he's got a genuine interest in Magic, and when he gets into his research he can forget to even eat or sleep. * Afraid of Blood: He dislikes the sight of blood and is horrified when he experiences his first kill in combat. * Ambiguous Disorder: Chronic drowsiness when under stress, fluttering from interest to interest and only being able to focus on whatever fancies him in the moment are all characteristics of some forms of ADHD. ** His tendency to focus only on things that interest him and general lack of social tact at times also could indicate some mild form of Autism, likely a high-functioning variant. * Berserk Button: The normally laid-back Zuri pretty much throws a tantrum with Laxus when he refuses to let Zuri study his Dragon Slayer Magic. * Bishounen: He's one of the more feminine-looking male characters among the cast. * Bookworm: He adores reading and researching Magic, and his room is full of books scattered about. * Brilliant, but Lazy: ** He has a deep interest in Magic, and many of his peers note that he's actually one of the smartest Mages in their Guild, but he has a hard time fighting his drowsiness and admits he gets bored easily. *** Erza: You have an almost unparalleled intellect. A singular focus. An unfettered imagination. In truth, you have talents that many, including myself, will never have the privilege of possessing. *** Zuri: Are you complimenting me, Erza? That alone deserves to be studied. *** Erza: Let me finish. I haven't an ounce of respect for the cause you have chosen to waste your talents on. Which changes frequently, I might add, with no rhyme, reason, or results. * Deadpan Snarker: Zuri generally speaks in the same flat, somewhat critical tone of voice, and his interactions with the other characters often come off as pretty snarky, * Dude Looks Like a Lady: He's one of the most androgynous-looking characters pre-timeskip, not helped by his feminine-sounding Japanese voice. In art, his uniform pants even look like a skirt. * Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: He admits he tends to pick up random subjects to research, only to drop them again when he gets bored of them. * For Science!: Zuri is willing to take some dangerous risks and sometimes make unknowingly inappropriate statements in the name of Magic research. * Hypocritical Humor: Zuri's first conversation with Lucy consists of him stating his name and a blunt "goodbye," and Hilde remarks on Zuri's rudeness. Then, when Lucy becomes a part of the guild, Zuri reprimands Hilde for her rudeness and properly greets the new guild member, before leaving to go take a nap. * Lazy Bum: Generally a giant slacker concerned with napping and taking it easy (unless Magic gets involved, to the point where his zeal for research makes him forget to eat and sleep). * Recurring Element: Zuri's a minor version of the 'very pretty male priest that could pass as a lady' that was popularized by Lucius. * Reluctant Warrior: He hates fighting and bloodshed, and fears for both his own mortality and his comrades'. Even during battle, he never fully gets over it by his own admission.